Sure, there is the actual exchanging of punches and the displays of skill and valor. When done right, they’re the best thing you can possibly see.

Otherwise, “boxing” is just a collection of tribes with no controlling authority and hardly any boundaries.

For Scott Quigg to weigh 128.8 pounds at a weigh-Friday in for a 126-pound championship fight is inexcusable. Instead he gave up 20 percent of his purse and any chance at Oscar Valdez’s WBO featherweight championship belt at StubHub Center Saturday, but he was still allowed to fight. Not only that, Quigg refused to weigh in again on Saturday morning.

Postponing a fight at the last minute is not like postponing a major league baseball game. A lot of investments have to be made good. But Quigg should have forfeited the opportunity to show himself on ESPN, to be impressive enough to bolster his career. He should have been suspended for a painful amount of time. The weights are no surprise, and the run-up to the fight lasted two months. Blowing weight is far more serious then deflating the footballs.

As rain swirled around StubHub Center Saturday, Valdez stormed to an early lead over Quigg, the former super-bantamweight champion. But Quigg,withstood it and began cracking Valdez hard in the middle rounds, a situation complicated both by Quigg’s added pounds and a cut that developed on the inside of Valdez’s mouth.

It evolved into one of those classic StubHub slugfests, a fight that could be heard as easily as seen, nothing more or less than 12 rounds of 3-minute auto wrecks.

Valdez (24-0) wound up winning in lopsided fashion, by 117-111 in two cards and 118-110 on another.

Last September, 130-pound IBF title-holder Gervonta Davis was 2 pounds too heavy for Francisco Fonseca and gave up his belt, admitting he knew he wouldn’t make the limit.

Last December, 122-pound contender Diego De La Hoya knew he was so far behind that he didn’t even bother with the scales, and ESPN cancelled its telecast. The kicker was that De La Hoya’s battle with Jose Salgado was already scheduled at a “catch weight” of 124. De La Hoya will move up in weight and suffer no reprisals, but how was this fair for Salgado, who was coming up from super-flyweight (115)?

Last March, Gennady Golovkin met Daniel Jacobs in New York for all of Golovkin’s middleweight belts. The IBF stipulated a second weigh-in on the morning of the fight, in which the boxers could not weigh 10 more pounds than at the official weigh-in. Golovkin came in at 169.5 for the 160-pound championship, but Jacobs blew off the second weigh-in and was estimated by advisor Victor Conte to weigh between 176 and 180 when the bell rang. Unprepared to fight a cruiserweight, Golovkin still floored Jacobs and won a close decision.

The reason there are so many weight divisions, instead of the basic eight that some of us grew up with, is to make it easier and safer to hit the number. Featherweight is only 4 pounds heavier than super-bantamweight and 4 pounds lighter than super-featherweight. But clearly the belts themselves aren’t worth the inconvenience.

Surely nothing could sully the rematch between Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez on May 5. Then came Canelo’s positive drug test for clenbuterol. Canelo blamed it on tainted Mexican beef, so the Golovkin camp immediately termed it “Blarney Asada” and called for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to investigate, which the commission said it would.

There will be more drug tests for Canelo, but the concern is that the drug has already done its work by now.

Only Canelo would prosper from a postponement. Golovkin turns 36 in April. He was the smaller man in the ring last September, when the two staged a draw, and he probably will be outweighed in May as well. When boxers use steroids, they aren’t just putting extra force on a fastball. They’re connecting with bone and brain and tissue.

Other sports don’t just test their athletes during competition or training. The international swimming federation is likely to show up at your door after midnight, any midnight , with a smile and a beaker. With all the governing bodies and state commissions, a truly random testing program doesn’t seem unreasonable.

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